A senior Australian bank executive resigned recently. Let me stress this. HE RESIGNED - he wasn't fired or pushed or made redundant, he resigned to go to a presumably better job. He took with him a severance pay of $32.75 MILLION.

I am 56 years old, and I currently earn $50,000 a year. I consider this a fair salary for what I do. If I spent my entire working life on my current salary I would have earnt $2.2m TOTAL. And if I resign of my own volition I would get accrued long service leave - nothing else.

For three years my wife worked for the same bank as this greedy bastard. She worked part-time - pretty well no-one below branch manager gets a full-time job in Australian banking any more. She spent three years copping abuse from the public over reduced services and ever more branches being closed, all of which were making the money that went to this man's payout, for the equivalent of $24,000 per year full time. She eventually resigned because the stress was too great. Her payout was $2,000 superannuation contributions, which she can't touch until retirement age, and one week's leave she was owed.

And this bank's share price has been dropping steadily for over two years.

Can some of you advocates of capitalism please explain to me exactly why all the above is fair and a good thing. I'm afraid it escapes me.

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Paul D